As the 2,184 miles wound down, with no career plans in place, Simko began pondering what he'd do after reaching his destination. When that moment finally arrived, only one thing made sense.

"We kept hiking," he said, smiling.

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If bears, ticks and the mental strain of life on the trail weren't enough, he decided to descend Mount Katahdin via the precipitous Knife Edge route, with 2,000-foot sheer drops.

"That's why we did it," he said. "It's an adrenaline rush."

For most of his early life, Simko didn't pursue extremes. One of his first outdoor adventures was a Grand Canyon hike with his father, Ron, in 2006.

Shortly afterward, he moved to Saratoga Springs to work for Quad/Graphics.

"I'd never heard of the Adirondacks," said Simko, an Indiana native. "I don't know how I missed a 6 million-acre state park."

One day, on his own, he decided to climb two of the High Peaks -- Cascade and Porter.

"I was instantly hooked," he said. "I made a lot of new friends and did more and more hiking."

A couple of years ago, one of them asked if he'd be interested in joining a group headed to Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. "We saw the sunrise from the summit on New Year's Day 2011," he said.

After Quad/Graphics transferred him to California, Simko and a couple of college buddies went to Yosemite National Park together and began talking about doing the Appalachian Trail. After months of planning, they started out March 8.

"Should I really be doing this?" Simko asked himself. "Finally, we just decided if we're not going to do it now, we may never do it."

In Southern Virginia, he encountered several inches of late spring snow; in Pennsylvania, a trio of black bears. However, small adversaries were sometimes the worst.

"We had to do tick checks constantly," Simko said. "You can see a bear and scare him off. Ticks can be hiding anywhere. I found 21 of them on me one day. There's a huge risk of Lyme disease."

But none of this compared to the sheer drudgery at times of hiking through an endless green tunnel of trees, usually averaging more than 20 miles per day.

"I hit a wall at one point," he said. "I remember telling this one lady we met, 'I don't know if I can do this another four months.' She told me, 'Just get through tomorrow.' That got me through a lot of tough days."

The farther north he got, the more state lines he began crossing -- New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts -- a huge morale booster as his ultimate goal drew closer.

Simko's favorite experience during the whole trek was hiking above timber line in New Hampshire's White Mountains Presidential Range, including Mount Washington. From there, he only had a few weeks to go.

He reached the trail's northern terminus Aug. 27, just in time for the sunrise.

"It was like a flood of emotions," Simko said. "Happy, super excited to be there, unsure of what's next because I didn't have a job lined up."

Next?

Someday he'd like to hike the Pacific Coast and Continental Divide trails.

"Becoming a Triple Crowner would be cool," he said.

Career-wise, all Simko knows is that he wants something that allows him to be active and outdoors.

The most important thing the Appalachian Trail taught him is that it's good to have a long-range goal, but that hiking -- like life -- has many unexpected twists and turns. Quite often, there is no way to prepare for them.

However, this year's odyssey has given Simko the confidence that he can handle most things that come his way.